An Australian couple became unwitting drug mules after they were told that they had won an all expenses paid trip to Canada only to arrive home with their bags stuffed with illegal drugs. The pair became suspicious that their luggage had been tampered with and alerted customs officers at Perth

Gold is growing in trees in Australia, with some eucalyptus specimens sucking up the metal in their search for moisture, according to geoscientists. The discovery was made near Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, with the scientists using X-ray imaging to detect gold particles in the leaves, twigs and

Australian firefighters have merged two wildfires in an effort to try and control huge blazes burning in Sydney’s hinterland. The decision to join the edges of the fires, near Lithgow and Mount Victoria in the Blue Mountains, was aimed at starving them of the fuel and preventing them from joining a

Firefighters west of Sydney expect that two, or even three, bushfires burning out of control will today merge into one massive mega-blaze that could sweep down to the outskirts of Sydney. Fire crews spent yesterday back-burning in a bid to stop the major blazes joining up. “The modelling

Cricketers at the Drumoyne Oval in Sydney played under floodlights yesterday as smoke from the worst wild fires in Australia for a decade shrouded the city. The state of New South Wales experienced more than 90 fires, one just 40 miles from Sydney, leaving hundreds of homes at risk as strong winds

An Australian tourist who was buried under snow for six hours near Mount Everest has died after digging his wife and two companions out and walking eight hours through the darkness to find help. Dean Higgins, 60, his wife Wendy and two of their friends were sleeping in a tent when the avalanche

Julian Assange, who invited the world to peer into the embarrassing secrets of the US Army, the State Department and Guantanamo Bay, is now airing his family linen in public. The WikiLeaks founder appears to have cut adrift his own support group in an extraordinary row involving his mother and his

Leighton Holdings is co-operating with Australian federal police over explosive allegations that its executives knew of millions of dollars in kickbacks paid to win contracts in Iraq, Indonesia and Malaysia. The construction company’s shares plunged more than 10 per cent today after the claims

The world’s richest woman has unexpectedly capitulated in a bitter, long-running legal battle with two of her children for control of the family’s A$4 billion trust fund. Gina Rinehart, a mining heiress worth A$18.5 billion, offered to step down as manager of the family trust yesterday, a week

Australian prisoners are being sent 1,000 miles to work at a salt mine in the Outback as part of a controversial programme that puts inmates at the disposal of private firms. Under the “Sentenced to a Job” employment programme, prisoners at low security risk can be used for private or public